Age of Empires logos

Age of Empires no doubt produces reactions and fuzzy-good feelings in anyone who grew up with a Windows computer in the 1990s. Thanks to developer Ensemble Studios being more or less a part of Microsoft, the historical real-time strategy game found a strange kind of ubiquity.

Given its setting the Age of Empires logotype can seem stereotypical at best. And indeed, in its later versions the developers sees to have settled into the super-safe bet of Trajan with a bunch of dimensional and physical effects. Not that there is anything wrong with that, of course, but I can’t help but mourn the original logotype, which used a curiuosly handled version of the forgotten titling face Castellar.

Castellar is an inline typeface with a very cute capital ‘R’. It fell into oblivion due to, you know, Trajan. The typeface was most likely chosen thanks to its inclusion in the second Windows True Type Font Pack. Any trace of the original inline stylings have since been erased in the logotype, replaced with gradients, embossing and outlines. The “of” is set in a different, heavily slanted typeface, probably Nuptial, as Castellar is capitals only.